Why I Love Viral List Building

By: Kurt Schmitt...

For beginning list building, I often recommend viral list builders, and I still use them successfully myself. Some marketers, even ones who are good at viral list building, don't like viral list builders. Not all these tools are created equal, however, and I suspect that some who don't like them, simply don't put them to good use.

What's a viral list builder? It's simply a way to leverage your list building efforts. Basically, it uses existing subscribers and visitors to get more subscribers and more visitors. These are true set and forget advertising techniques, and they're often zero cost.

If you want to make every visitor count, these tools can help you acheive that at no cost. Some viral list builders work on page, some work as popups, and some replace a page entirely, such as a thank you page. Before I continue, I want to be sure that you understand that zero cost is referring to money only.

While these tools can be free, or free with an upgrade option, there are other costs involved. The fact that you're often building someone else's list or traffic as well as your own is a trade off I'm willing to make. I suspect most people don't use these tools to full advantage, and so they feel the trade offs are not worth it.

I happen to like List Inferno, so I'll use that one as an example. They have an easy three step sign up process, and this tool doesn't have to be a pop up, although it can be. Some people don't like pop ups, or they may conflict with the terms of service of some ad and affilate programs. Also, unlike some other list builers, List Inferno offers the ability to promote ezines on topics other than Internet Marketing.

How does it work? Basically, your traffic is used to show several ezine subscription forms on your site. Somewhere else on the web, your ezine details are presented as well. You simply enter your ezine subscription details in the List Inferno list builder and copy their code into your web pages. The more times you show a page with the code, the more chances you have of getting another subscriber.

This means that for every visitor to your page, you get the opportunity to gain another subscriber. In my experience, the sign up rate with viral list builders is rather high. My list building efforts, once started with these viral tools, just seem to spin off on their own without my having to actively do anything. I like that, and you will too. If they slow down for any reason, I simply ramp them up a bit with a few techniques and there they go again gathering subscribers.

In my course on beginning list building, I outline the basic elements that you need to properly build a list. One of those elements is, obviously, a way to reach potential subscribers.

One challenge, however, is that many people find it hard to drive traffic to their websites, or they don't want to spend the money on a website at all. While I highly recommend that you build a website and develop a number of ways to drive traffic, viral list builders like List Inferno can be used with free websites, and once you get a few visitors, the viral effect begins to build your list for you.

There are a number of things you can do to increase the power of a viral list builder. One simple technique is to create a number of relevant keyword rich pages on your site, and place the list building code on each of those pages.

In order to generate the viral effect of the list builder, drive traffic to those pages using whatever means you normally would. Then, within your emails to your subscribers, give them a reason to visit to those pages.

In this way, not only will you have natural traffic working for you, but each subscriber as well. In fact, if you do this right, each subscriber can be responsible for producing several opportunities for you to gain new subscribers. Using this type of system, you'll be a champion of viral list building in no time.

Author Kurt Schmitt works with and teaches email marketing solutions that work. If you're interested in generating more traffic and more subscribers through viral list building pick up a copy of his ecourse.

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